21 Indian Startups Making News This Week (21 March – 27 March)

E-commerce

1) BigBasket founded by Hari Menon, V.S. Sudhakar, Vipul Parekh and Abhinay Choudhari: Online grocer BigBasket has raised $150 million in a funding round led by UAE-based private equity investor Abraaj Group. Existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Helion Advisors, Zodius Capital and Ascent Capital along with new investors International Finance Corp and Sands Capital also participated in the round.

2) StalkBuyLove founded by Tushar Ahluwalia: Online Fashion brand StalkBuyLove has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Germany-based venture fund Littlerock, 500 Startups, Singularity Ventures and others. The company will use the newly raised funds to accelerate its growth, invest in its talent base, and strengthen its supply and fulfillment structures further.

3) WithMe founded by Shishir Maheshwari, Nithin Kaimal and Ashutosh Pandey: Fashion app WithMe has raised $250K funding from angel investors including Alex Kuruvilla, Pradeep Guha, and Saket Dhankar. The newly raised capital will be used to build cutting-edge features on the app, specifically making the app more ‘intelligent’ so users have a highly personalised high-end fashion experience.

Consumer Internet

4) OneClickWash founded by Srinivas Nudurupati and Vivek Iyer: Unitus Seed Fund has invested an undisclosed amount in app-based laundry service provider OneClickWash. The startup provides laundry services where users can choose a monthly package and a suitable time slot for pickup.

5) Girnar Softwares founded by Amit and Anurag Jain: Girnar Software, that owns auto portals like CarDekho.com, Gaadi.com, BikeDekho.com, TyreDekho.com, and Zigwheels.com, has received investment from Google Capital, along with participation from existing investor Hillhouse Capital. With the new round of funding, Girnar plans to further bolster its technology, R&D and expansion within and outside India.

6) Drivojoy founded by Aman Singhal, Vishwanath Kollapudi and Ravindra Akella: Bike and scooter repair service provider, DrivoJoy, has raised $600K in its Pre Series A round of funding from Indian Angel Network and others. The newly raised capital will be used for hiring, marketing, building technology and scaling up operations.

7) CityShor founded by Pallav Parikh and Pankaj Pathak: An online lifestyle media recommendation portal, CityShor, has raised an undisclosed amount in an angel round of funding from GAIN. The startup will use the funding to launch in Bangalore, expand its content distribution & increase the team strength.

8) Horntell founded by Mohit Mamorio: Gurgaon based tech startup Horntell, has raised $150K in angel funding led by Bharanidharan Viswanathan. Sanjiv Mital, Shobhit Shukla, and Rahul Agarwal also participated in this round of funding. The company is valued under $2 Mn at the moment.

9) WheelStreet founded by Pranay Shrivastava and Moksha Srivastava: Bike rental startup Wheelstreet has raised $500K in a funding round led by Broadbean Capital services. It plans to use the funding to expand its technological capabilities and expand into more geography.

10) RideITfounded by Genoveva Galarza and Rahul Jacob: A ride-sharing services startup that facilitates sharing of rides in private and commercial vehicles, RideIT, has raised $110K from Hyderabad based investor. The platform currently has over 5000 active rides and facilitating on an average 60 new carpools a day in Hyderabad.

11) Freshtohome founded by Shan Kadavil: Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus and Google India head Rajan Anandan have invested an undisclosed amount in the Bangalore based online fish and meat store Freshtohome. The company plans to use the funds raised to set up processing and customer support centres in Delhi.

Technology

12) CreditSeva founded by Satya Vishnubhotla: Fintech startup, CreditSeva, has raised $361K in a Bridge round from investors including Pix Vine Capital and the early-stage investment arm of Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, Infocomm Investments (IIPL). The startup offers a simplified tool which helps its users manage their credit effectively.

13) Endless Robotics founded by Srikar Reddy: Robotics startup Endless Robotics Pvt Ltd has raised $100K in Pre-Seed round of funding via investment platform TermSheet.io. The round saw participation from individual investors and angel investment firms from the US, Singapore and India. The team plans to target small to mid-level new residential projects in Hyderabad.

14) SP Robotics founded by Sneha Priya and Pranavan Santhanakrishnan: SP Robotics Works, which provides robotic education to school and college students, has raised $300K in a funding round by Indian Angel Network (IAN). Nagaraja Prakasam led this round on behalf of IAN and will also join the board of the company. This round has been co-led by The Chennai Angels (TCA).

15) Smartron founded by Mahesh Lingareddy: Former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has invested in IoT Company Smartron India and has also become the brand ambassador of the company. The company is operating in stealth mode and is set to launch a slew of smart devices and Internet of Things (IoT) products for consumer and enterprise markets in the first quarter of FY 2016-17.

Hotel

16) RoomOnCall founded by Pradeep Sajjan, Amit Goel and Nirupma Dhawan: A branded budget accommodation marketplace, Room on Call, has raised $2 million led by ‘on-vehicle’ advertising company, Cash ur Drive (CUD). The startup has recently launched its mobile app to enable customers to book their accommodation more conveniently.

Sports

17) Gosporto founded by Nikhil Jha, Vivek Kumar, Rajendra Bansal and Sumit Pokhriyal: Sports discovery and booking platform goSporto has raised $30K in seed funding from Singapore-based angel investor Naveen Gupta. The startup plans to use the funds to be raised for increasing outreach through online marketing and offline events to get more users; hiring, product innovation, and scaling up presence in multiple cities.

19) eKincare founded by Dinesh Koka and Kiran Kalakuntla: Healthcare startup eKincare has raised $329K in Pre-Series A round of funding from Bitkemy Ventures, Maheshwari Investment. Pvt. Ltd, and other HNIs including Anshoo Gaur, RamaKrishna Reddy and Sandeep Seerapu.

Education

20) Byju’s founded by ‎Byju Raveendran: Edtech startup Byju’s has raised $75 million from Sequoia India and Belgium-based investment firm Sofina. The latest funding will enable Byju’s to deliver content in a radically new format, expand its product pipeline and to enter new markets.